The loud crash still echoed in my ears as I struggled to stand, each movement a stabbing agony. My fractured ribs crunched under the strain, and hot blood traced viscous paths from my forehead to my chin. The world danced before my eyes, a blur of faded colors, and I felt the darkness pulling my consciousness toward its abyss.
Then the ground shook.
A sinister premonition swept through me before the branches emerged, writhing like hungry snakes, their tips sharp like ebony daggers, glistening and venomous. They dripped a thick, blackened liquid that corroded the earth where they fell, the branches arching over me, preparing to descend.
They were not simple thorns, but violent spears that destroyed everything in their path, hungry for flesh and suffering.
"I can't take it anymore…" I murmured.
